Project Proposal

For my final project, I’d like to take on the second option (the combination public education project and short paper) on Judaism and Homosexuality. I realize that this is a pretty large topic, but I’m having some difficulty narrowing down which direction I’d like to go with the project. I think this will be remedied once I’ve been able to do some more research on the subject. I believe that, although I’ve become pretty fickle lately, I’ve narrowed my options down to the following two:
 

1. 1. A timeline showing how rabbinical discourse (mainly Orthodox) about homosexuality (and sexuality in general) has changed.

I think that an overview of how Orthodox Jewish officials are approaching the subject could be a great project to undertake. In my experience, especially in popular media, issues with religion and homosexuality have been mainly shown in a Christian context; however, it’d be interesting to see how the two religions overlap and where they differ on the issue.

2. A public viewing of the movie Trembling Before G-d.

I have not actually seen this movie. Based on the synopsis of it, though, it seems like it provides several perspectives on the difficulties of being both Orthodox Jewish and gay or lesbian. I thought that, if possible, it would be great to organize with our campus Hillel to have the movie shown on campus. In my paper, I’d want to discuss how the public received this documentary. According to IMDB, Trembling Before G-d has been nominated for and won several awards (such as the GLAAD Media Awards for Outstanding Documentary in 2003), but I would be surprised if there wasn’t at least one person who had some issue with the film.